Paul and Grayson back Bunning’s block of jobless benefit extension
U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate
By David Lightman, Halimah Abdullah and Linda B. Blackford – McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning of Kentucky may be a lame duck Republican, but he still knows how to create a flap.
Late Thursday night and again Friday morning, Bunning single-handedly blocked a 30-day extension of unemployment benefits and health insurance payments for more than 1 million jobless Americans over concerns about the federal deficit.
Along the way, he complained of having to miss the University of Kentucky’s basketball game against South Carolina and reportedly responded to a Democrat’s complaints with “tough s–t.”
The result: Some unemployment benefits could dry up Monday. Newly laid-off workers might not get federal help with health insurance premiums. Road and transit bills could go unpaid. Medicare payments to doctors would stay high. Rural satellite reception might even be affected.
By Friday afternoon, Bunning’s regional offices in Hazard and Louisville received bomb threats, according to the Kentucky State Police in Hazard. Police said they evacuated the premises, and searched the area with sniffer dogs. As of Friday evening, nothing had been found and the investigation was turned over to the FBI.
Bunning spokesman Mike Reynard said phones in all of Bunning’s offices have been “ringing off the hook all day. I think a lot of people are upset but there have been some positive calls.”
Reynard said Bunning supports the legislation but believes it must be paid for. So far, Democrats have rejected his ideas, such as paying for the measure with unspent stimulus funds.
“If we can’t find $10 billion to fund something all 100 senators agree on, we won’t pay for anything,” Reynard said.
The top Republicans seeking to replace Bunning, who is not seeking re-election in November, applauded the 77-year-old Hall of Fame pitcher’s hard ball stance as the top Democrats in the race denounced the move.
Republican Trey Grayson, Kentucky’s secretary of state, said he would “proudly stand up to ensure that programs are paid for …” Republican Rand Paul, a Bowling Green eye surgeon, said “more Senators need to stand up for the taxpayers and against the big spending career politicians in both parties.”
Democrat Daniel Mongiardo, Kentucky’s lieutenant governor, labeled Bunning’s maneuver “cold-hearted disregard for his fellow Kentuckians.” Democrat Jack Conway, Kentucky’s attorney general, accused Bunning of “grandstanding and political posturing, despite being asked to stop even by his Republican colleagues.”
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear said 119,230 unemployed Kentuckians are receiving benefits through the federal extension program that will expire Sunday. About 14,000 of those would exhaust their benefits within two weeks without the extension, he said. Kentucky’s unemployment rate stands at 10.7 percent.
The House of Representatives passed the extension by voice vote earlier this week, and the Senate was expected to go along. Then along came Bunning, a fiscal conservative, who objected because Congress didn’t pay for the $10 billion bill.
Voice votes can be blocked by a single objection. With many lawmakers already gone for the weekend, the next roll call vote in the Senate isn’t scheduled until Tuesday.
After Democrats spent several hours urging Bunning to reconsider his objection Thursday night, Bunning complained just before midnight that he had been forced to miss UK’s game against South Carolina.
“We weren’t going to stand around for three and a half hours debating the issue,” he said. “But I want to assure the people who have watched this thing until a quarter of 12, I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9 o’clock. It is the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina, since they are the only team that has beat Kentucky this year.”
At another point, Bunning responded to a plea by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., to end his objection with “tough s–t,” according to Politico, a Washington-based political newspaper.
Among the other provisions set to expire are the flood insurance program, Small Business Administration loans, a 21 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.
Anyone laid off after March 1 no longer would be able to get federal help to pay health insurance premiums; the program now pays 65 percent of the cost for certain workers.
Rural television watchers could lose local channels because the bill would extend the copyright license used by satellite television companies to offer the service.
The Senate is expected to consider a longer-term extension of the programs Monday, with passage likely next week.
Filed Under: Daniel Mongiardo • Elections • Federal Government • Jack Conway • Jim Bunning • Rand Paul • Trey Grayson • US Senate Race
About the Author: John Stamper is the accountability editor for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Monticello, Ky., he has been with the Herald-Leader in a variety of roles since graduating from Western Kentucky University in 2000. Reach him at jstamper@herald-leader.com
Bunning’s courage should be admired.
more S**t from the GEE”NO”PEE the senile old fart should of retired long time ago
Can’t they break out the stuff he objects to and vote on it separately from the stuff he may not have a problem with?
This time I’m proud of Bunning to the statist criminal idiots that our destroying our economy and any future prosperity with their failed, asinine spend,spend spend and spend some more policies.
Big Ben 4 liberty
you talking about Bush and the GoP and the 8 years of spend spend,need to check your facts
What is it about poor and starving children that offends these fellows so much?
How exactly is denying people their unemployment good for the economy?
Common good manners and the HL censors prevent me from expressing my complete and total contempt for Bunning. He is a disgrace!
Thank you Senator Bunning. Having someone that will do what’s right for the country and not for self-improvement is hard to find these days. People on unemployment won’t come off unemployment until they have to. What ever happened to self-respect? GONE.
I know how I will vote, but not like some of the rich conservatives that are christen in name only
“The story of the rich man and Lazarus from the Holy Bible. This is both a warning and an encouragement, especially to the downtrodden in this life; there is hope”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfVtOJVhV7c
Bunning is a heartless angry old man. I hope they kick him out of the Baseball Hall of Fame, that ´s a working people´s sport not a derranged old Scrouges privete club.
Hope his grandsons get to know what a soup line is
Bush was president 8 years….. the GOP only controlled both houses collectively for 4 full years…..
02 to 06 for the senate and 00 to 06 for the house…. so the spend spend spend was 1/2 democrats and 1/2 republicans…so idiot check your facts before spouting ignorance
Hey Right of Reagan and Big Ben,
Ronald Reagan left the country with the highest deficit in the history of the country, until George W. Bush overcame his huge totals in 2008.
Reagan always loved talking small government, but had the biggest government in years. We had more government employees under Reagan than Clinton. Bill Clinton left a surplus in 2001. That simply is a cold hard fact. The first surplus since a previous Democrat held office, Lyndon Johnson in 1969.
Remember all the talk in the 2000 election on how to spend it by Bush and Gore? Well Bush spent it.
And if you say that is not true, then I will have to conclude that you are a teenager.
I understand that Senator Bunning’s stand is a hardship, and he probably understands that too. But the way I look at it, our senators have dual responsibilities here: (1) help out people in a time of need during a recession that our government is currently exacerbating and (2) keep watch over our nation’s fiscal condition. Bunning is the only person who is actually trying to do BOTH of those things. He has agreed that unemployment benefits should be extended, but also wants to make sure they are paid for rather than added to an already burgeoning debt. He cited actual dollars that have already been allocated that could be spent on this (Stimulus Funds). And clearly unemployment benefits ARE a stimulus (they will be spent), so I see nothing wrong with using those funds to extend benefits.
This is what happens with lame-ducks who aren’t worried about getting reelected. They try to do the right thing, instead of the politically popular thing.
Jim Bunning is taking a lot of heat for essentially doing the right thing. I would say extending unemployment benefits is the same as welfare. There are quite a percentage of the unemployed who have given up looking for a job, and why should they look when the tax payers are constantly bailing them out. The first thing the democrats did when took control of both houses was to extend unemployment bailouts. They have to keep their useless and lazy base happy and dependent on the government. Finally someone said, NO!
Another thing lost in the whole deal is the timing of the vote. It comes essentially one business day before it expires. This should have been addressed weeks ago, thus ensuring that any lapse in benefits will not occur. Bunning is not objecting to unemployment benefits, he is objecting to how it is being paid.
Let’s get something straight here…..unemployment benefits are NOT WELFARE! I don’t know how it works down there in Kentucky but in Pennsylvania we pay for those benefits from our paychecks. If you need to fund the federal extension I suggest you take it out of the next payment going to Cheneyburtton the company that is electrocuting our brave fighting men and women in their showers and charging them to wash their clothes
Will read more article from you….
Yeah bookmaking this wasn’t a high risk conclusion great post! ….